Muslims and Islam

Justification for Violence in Islam: Part IX, Quietist Authoritarianism and Activist Radicalism

Previous: Justification for Violence in Islam, Part VIII: Quietism rather than Pacifism in Islam [64] The readiness to give up one’s life for a goal beyond oneself presupposes a free human agent who could engage in risk- benefit analysis and decide to risk his life for a just cause. There is considerable agreement among Muslims […]

Justification for Violence in Islam: Part X, Concluding Remarks

Previous: Justification for Violence in Islam, Part IX: Quietist Authoritarianism and Activist Radicalism [83] Historical development of Islam as a power-faith tradition with its ideology firmly based on creating the ethical order that embodied divine will on earth provided a detailed and thoroughly developed vision of peace with justice. The basis for such a commitment […]

Revisiting the Question of the Muslim Deity

[1] The question is whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God. This question has been posed, and answered in the negative, by Walter R. Bouman (JLE, 4/8/02). Harold Vogelaar has weighed in on the other side (JLE, 4/24/02). I would like to affirm everything Professor Vogelaar has to say, especially in his distinction between […]

Christians and Muslims: Do They Worship the Same God?

[1] Is this a question that needs to be answered? Isn’t it a bit like asking if the existence of God can be proved? Why do we need to prove it? Why do we need to know if Muslims worship the same God as do we? What difference might that make? Having said this, let […]

Do Christians and Muslims Worship the Same God?

[1] The question is whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God. Muslims would say that they do. For there is but one God, and to worship anything but that one God is not to worship God at all. Since Christians, Muslims, and Jews all worship the God who created the world, who called Abraham […]

La illaha il’allah: There is no God but God

[1] As an Arab-American Lutheran who has lived in Muslim countries, has been in religious dialogue with Muslims, and has close personal friends who are Muslims, I am always troubled – even vicariously insulted – by the question “Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?” Part of the insult comes from the fact that […]

The Lord is Near to All Who Call on Him

[1] My first encounter with Islam was much more sensory than theological. In Fall 1981 our family of four arrived in Damascus, Syria, to begin a year of teaching and research. Immediately we were immersed in the sights and sounds and smells of the Arab East, if not always of Islam itself. Outside the bedroom […]

Should We Forgive Osama bin Laden and Members of Al-Qaida?

Originally published in The Dispatch, Moline, Illinois, January 20, 2002. Used with permission. [1] In Mere Christianity, a widely-read book published shortly after World War II, C.S. Lewis suggests that we should forgive everyone, even the Gestapo, Hitler’s hated secret police viewed by many as the most wicked of the wicked. [2] For many today, […]